Saturday at McQuirk they were insane at the truck but not bad at the cliff. It was cold though with a decent north wind. Sunday at Minkey tolerable for most of the day. Got bad a few times late afternoon. Blackflies only.

At Munson on the 25th, the blackflies were the thickest I have ever seen. They were not particularly aggressive, though I had full protection and was moving the whole time. I could even hear them bouncing off the nylon of the bug hat. They were everywhere, no matter the sun/shade or wind exposure and in the right light conditions, actually obstructed the view.

On another note, the road is also in the roughest shape it's been. I was able to repair some more of the damage done by a few trucks that went out late last fall. The real problems seem to have been caused by an ATV that must have passed early this spring when it was really soft. They swerved all over the place, in some places they likely got stuck as it's especially chewed up. It's like they straddled each big rock, compacting/washing out the road around it, so now they protrude enough to scrapes low clearance vehicles.

We were at Utopia today. Bugs were definitely out but with some spray and tim hortons trays they were manageable. We heard from some others at utopia that they had tried mcquirks earlier in the day and it was unbearable.

Out at Eagle Rock today, bugs were minimal. Applied bug spray once at the car and I was fine in a t-shirt the whole time. Definitely seemed like a good place to be in bug season. They did start to pick up as we were leaving around 5:30, though they were still not bad

I went climbing at bear mtn for the first time today. Did a few routes. Those slopers didn't agree with the hot weather, even easier grades felt hard due to poor friction. bug index: 7.8 combination of black flies and horse flies and they didn't care that I was practically dripping with bug spray.Went to Welsford falls to cool down afterwards and saw a black bear cub on that road. Mama bear probably wasn't far away.

My wife saw a female and 3 cubs cross the road between Sunnyside and Mt. Doug on Monday. You should basically assume bears are everywhere in southern N.B. That said... I don't know how you'd use that info to do anything differently as you go about your day climbing. Cheers.

My wife saw a female and 3 cubs cross the road between Sunnyside and Mt. Doug on Monday. You should basically assume bears are everywhere in southern N.B. That said... I don't know how you'd use that info to do anything differently as you go about your day climbing. Cheers.

True enough! Kind of funny with all the time I spend in the woods I have never seen a bear Any ways I'll get back to talking about bugs

Climbed at a very empty Cochrane Lane on Saturday and Sunday. Bugs are probably a 2 or 3 on a scale of 1-10. There may have been 10 climbers out there over the entire weekend. Great weather for climbing!

McQuirk on Sunday...some mosquitos on the walk in. Only a few black flies at the cliff/on the wall until about 3 and then they were a bit pesky...prob a 3/10 but had short sleeves and no bug dope. Mosquitos at the campsite and the walk out around 5 after 15 mins of rain were quite vicious but seemingly around the cliff they weren't too bad.

We drove up after leaving mcquirk to see you guys sending 14's but you were gone. The road up is in bad shape...don't think you could get through that last puddle with a car...had to be close to a foot and a half deep.

Shawn B wrote:We drove up after leaving mcquirk to see you guys sending 14's but you were gone. The road up is in bad shape...don't think you could get through that last puddle with a car...had to be close to a foot and a half deep.

We were on dystopia wall so our routes got wet after the rain shower and we were weenies so we went home The road is definitely rough, we just park at the entrance and walk up from there. Wouldn't want to risk a car in those puddles